Nursery Children Explore Autumn in Forest School

The Autumn season is upon us once again, and The Gower School Montessori Nursery children are exploring the changing outdoors through our certified Forest School programme. The changing of the season brings new opportunities for exploration and creativity at Forest School.

On Friday 6th October our nursery classes embarked on their annual Autumn Walk in our local forest in Caledonian Park. The children loved to observe the changing colours of the leaves, and were given binoculars to look more closely at wildlife such as birds or squirrels. The children were challenged to collect leaves and then sort them through a counting and colour matching activity, and many took the opportunity to throw them into the air and crunch them underfoot.

Activities such as tree climbing, rope walking and digging with trowels and shovels are popular activities which aid the development of children’s fine and gross motor skills, as well as muscles. Practical life activities such as hanging clothing or ‘baking’ in our mud kitchen are always creative endeavours. Forest School allows us new ways to engage with other areas of the curriculum; we made numerals out of homemade playdough and the children practised matching quantity and symbol by collecting groups of natural objects. Natural materials are foraged by the children to use later in art and learning projects in the classroom. 

We feel it is so important for children living in Islington and Northern London to engage with the outdoors in a meaningful way, and not shy away from getting dirty! Learning about nature in a hands-on environment allows the children to form strong learning connections with all areas of their learning. They also learn important life skills about the natural world around them, allowing them to develop an appreciation for the Earth. As the future stewards of the planet, frequent outdoor play and learning is essential to The Gower School Nursery’s Montessori ethos.